


Laughter

by rathrunpredictabl



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Relationships, Post-Canon, the kind of giggling that comes from months of stress evaporating in one go
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-17
Updated: 2013-11-17
Packaged: 2018-01-01 21:14:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1048634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rathrunpredictabl/pseuds/rathrunpredictabl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The party starts slowly, and Mako goes to coax Dr Gottlieb out of hiding...</p>
<hr/><p>“I just… Ah. When you and Newt were telling us why it would not work to simply drop the device into the breach, you said… the breach reads the kaiju’s genetics like a… barcode at the supermarket.” She can’t stop smiling, and now a heady, shattering giggle is building in her chest. “I just… Really? A supermarket? That was the first thing you thought of?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laughter

_2 hours post- Breach closure  
Hong Kong Shatterdome: K-Science Lab_

“Doctor?”

Dr Gottlieb aborts his gesture before the drink touches his lip and looks up at her, the iris of his left eye ringed with crimson. “Ms Mori.” 

Mako takes it as an invitation and comes into the lab. Gottlieb is hunched at his deactivated holoscreen in his damp parka with the hood up, both hands cupped around a steaming mug. He looks hollow and small. “Here you are. Why are you here? The party has already started in all four mess halls.” 

He huffs and moves his shoulders uncomfortably. “I'll be along later.”

Mako narrows her eyes at him and approaches. He takes a sip of the drink (it smells like jasmine tea) and shifts again. He's staring through the screens. Absently he lifts a hand and touches it to his nose; there's no blood, but Mako observes his fingers trembling. “Go on Ranger, get along,” he chides her, flapping at her vaguely with the same hand. “Isn't there a beer or something waiting for you upstairs? You... You deserve to celebrate.”

“So do you,” she says gently. “Is there anything I can get you?”

“What? No, no thank you, I'm... I merely...” Mako tugs over a chair and sits next to him, just like she used to. He hunches up. “No please really this is not necessary, I am completely fine--”

“I am not,” she states quietly. “I'm not okay. But I will be. The first step is saying to yourself that you are not okay, and that it is acceptable. Under the circumstances, I would be very, very surprised if you were as you say 'completely fine'.”

He pushes automatically at his nose again and sniffs. With a sad smile she stretches out and hooks her small fingers over the hand that holds the mug. He jumps, stares blearily at her hand for a few seconds, then to her relief he lets go of the mug and turns his hand over so she can hold it. He's cold and clammy, and shaking harder. Mako realises he must have been making an effort not to show it. 

Everyone knows what they did. Everyone. Newt is living the dream up there and wildly telling the story over and over; his own coping mechanism. He keeps asking if anyone has seen Hermann. The celebrations are tinged with sadness, but in the sense of celebrating with and for those absent. They are also threaded with fatigue, and Mako suspects the first will be a slumber party, so to speak, in the line of relieved and tearful toasts and a lot of hugging, followed by a true “Post-Apocalypse” event later, when everyone was feeling better.

Mako had entered the drift for the first time in a controlled environment, with someone she trusted and with whom it was obvious she was compatible, in an act she had been yearning for. She'd had a headache afterwards. Dr Gottlieb drifted for the first time in rain and wreckage with a homemade Pons, with a man he couldn't stand and a Kaiju, out of sheer desperation. God knows how rotten he is feeling right now.

Which is why it is important for him to get out of this room, she decides, glancing at the now obsolete chalkboard. She squeezes his hand. “I think you are in a state of shock, doctor, and you are very tired. I will make you some more tea, with sugar. Then we will go upstairs together. I do not want you to be by yourself. Everybody will be pleased to see you. It is not all the same crazy party. In mess hall A there are a lot of people sleeping.”

“Ahh sleep,” he murmurs. “I had almost forgotten there was such a thing.”

Mako gets up and refills the little kettle. The kitchen area is on this side, obviously. She glances back as he gulps more tea and breathes out heavily. He straightens his back as far as he can with a grimace, and his hood falls off. Mako comes back over at a trot with the boiled kettle, two tea bags, another mug and a fistful of sugar sticks, and prepares the tea quickly. He flutters his hands at her in a vague attempt to help, but gives up when she levels a stern face at him. She makes some for herself too, and slides her hands around the mug. She blows on the tea; the fragrant steam bathes her face. Her own fatigue and sorrow settle around her like a blanket.

But she smiles suddenly at a memory. Dr Gottlieb turns his head and looks at her irritably. “Wh-what is it? Why are you smiling?”

“I just... Ah. When you and Newt were telling us why it would not work to simply drop the device into the breach, you said... the breach reads the kaiju's genetics like a... barcode at the supermarket.” She can't stop smiling, and now a heady, shattering giggle is building in her chest. “I just... Really? A supermarket? That was the first thing you thought of?”

He is silent for a moment, thinking back. Mako makes a guttural, strangled sort of sound as she tries not to laugh. The corners of his mouth twitch upwards, and a beautiful spread of lines appear at the corners of his eyes. He is not old, but he looks so much younger. When he smiles, the care and stress and pain simply drop away. He flicks his brows. “As usual, I blame Newton,” he says, and goes to sip more tea. 

“Buy one category 5 Kaiju, get a thermonuclear bomb for free,” says Mako irreverently, successfully making Dr Gottlieb snort into his mug. “Excuse me, I purchased only Kaiju, I'm not sure what this robot is doing in my groceries... A supermarket?” she says again as the hysteria swells, and she stares at him incredulously, shaking with bubbling laughter.

There's a pause. His eyes dart between hers and his mouth crumples with a token effort at controlling his emotions. Then the ludicrousness comes down over them, like the backwash after Striker's detonation. Mako giggles uncontrollably. He shakes silently with his head in his hand and the tightness of his control snaps, and a wave of dizzy laughter makes him sway first forwards then backwards, and beat a hand against the desk. Mako coughs and clears her throat and gasps, only for Dr Gottlieb to catch her eye in his net of laughter lines and set her off again, this time straddling the line between mirth and the building ache in her chest where sensei is not. Dr Gottlieb has his face in his hands and is gulping air to get himself back under control. Mako is glowing through the sorrow, with the distinct impression of having glimpsed a hidden treasure. 

“Come,” she says, after a few seconds of panting and coughing. She wipes her eyes and sniffs. “Ahh. We will go upstairs now.” She stands up. “You do not have to stay for long, but you should come up for a little while. Lots of people wish to shake your hand.”

He nods rapidly and draws a deep breath again, convincing himself. He drains the rest of his tea, his face twisting in a different direction as he encounters the glut of sugar at the bottom, and stands up with a groan. Mako is astonished when he puts a hand on her shoulder for support. His eyes are red-rimmed and the points of his skull are standing out even more than usual, but the life has come back into his expression. She can't help lingering on the traumatised eye for a little longer, but she shakes it off and passes him his cane.

They walk out to the elevator together, and he keeps his hand on her shoulder up to the entrance of mess hall C.

**Author's Note:**

> After exclaiming almost the same thing as Mako when I watched the film for the first time, and after melting over Burn Gorman's gorgeous smiley-face in the blooper reel, I could not resist. :)


End file.
